Point72 Asset Management is dismissing its top talent scout after posting a sharp monthly loss for November.As head of recruiting for the $13 billion multi-strategy operation, Jonathan Jones is responsible for hiring analysts and portfolio managers for Point72’s investment team, which currently numbers about 550. Point72 told Jones this week that it’s letting him go, but he’ll remain employed by the Stamford, Conn., firm for up...

(Hedgeweek) Backstop Solutions Group, a cloud-based productivity suite provider for institutional and alternative investors, is to acquire BarclayHedge, a provider of alternative investment data and indices. To read this article:

(Bloomberg) The hedge fund shakeout is still unfolding with “many more” closures coming, according to Ilana Weinstein, chief executive officer of IDW Group. “This is far from over,” Weinstein said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Monday. “I don’t think […]

Below is our quarterly newsletter. If you would like to be added to our distribution list, please contact us. Clients, Friends, Associates: As we prepare for a new year, we also reflect on an eventful 2018 that included developments impacting both traditional hedge fund managers as well as those in the digital asset space. Regardless […]

On 19 and 20 March, 2019, just 10 days before the UK intends to leave the European Union, ABN AMRO Clearing with be hosting the 8th edition of its hugely popular Amsterdam Investor Forum; a leading forum for institutional investors and alternative investment managers.

Citigroup is facing $180 million in losses on loans gone sour to an Asian hedge fund, according to Bloomberg. The fund reportedly got battered on foreign-exchange bets that went sideways. The bank's b...

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has hired a hedge-fund executive to run credit sales as it continues to shake up its fixed income business in the US. John Karabelas, president of the credit hedge-fund ...

Headlines about high-profile hedge-fund closures and performance troubles commanded the industry's attention in 2018. A year that started with promise for both established managers and new players qui...

FIX Trading Community, the non-profit, industry-driven standards body at the heart of global financial trading, is to hold the EMEA Trading Conference on 14 March 2019 in association with a number of Trade Associations, including: The Association for Financial Markets in Europe, AFME, International Capital Market Association, ICMA, the European Debt Market Association, EDMA, and the German Investment Funds Association, BVI.

The value of regulated funds serviced in Jersey has broken through the GBP300 billion barrier for the first time, according to the latest figures to be collated by the jurisdiction’s regulator the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC).

Through the first half of 2018, hedge funds were getting along pretty well. The year did not finish on the same note. The third quarter was the first three-month stretch in which fund closures outpace...

(Bloomberg) ABB Ltd, the sprawling Swiss industrial giant, is lopping off its biggest limb to try to help simplify its conglomerate structure. CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer had previously resisted demands from the activist investor Cevian Capital to separate its power grids […]

By David Drake Over the past weeks, the cryptocurrency industry has experienced a dramatic decline in its total market capitalization. The prices of most cryptocurrencies took a sharp nosedive, disappointing investors. The industry’s growth had started to slow down after hitting highs towards the end of 2017. This is particularly true for Bitcoin which reached an all-time high […]

By David Drake The cryptocurrency market by its nature is unpredictable and has recently experienced a major downfall. By close of 2017, the value of Bitcoin and Ethereum rose to the highest point with Bitcoin reaching a high of almost $20,000. This high value of Bitcoin caused some countries to introduce cryptocurrency regulations to curb speculation in the […]

From our vantage point as advisers to many of the world's top investment fund managers and financial institutions, broad market forces flow through to our instructions, and ultimately drive many of th...

Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service Coinbase has launched its new &quot;Convert&quot; service that would allow its customers to convert one cryptocurrency into another.
The &quot;Convert,&quot; will initially allow conversions b... Article link

Where the world's smart money made and lost it in 2018
From Mint: Returns from hedge funds evaporated, some of the biggest names shut up shop and investors pulled their money. But there were some bright spots. The worst year for hedge funds since 2011 is drawing to a close. Returns evaporated, some... Article link

Opalesque Industry Update - The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has today published its latest International Statistical Release, which describes the developments in the worldwide investment fund industry during the third quarter of 2018.
Investment fund assets worldwide incr... Article link

From Guru Focus: Back in August, Apple made history when the company became the first business ever to achieve a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion. Unfortunately, this marked a high-water point for the company. Since then the shares in the consumer tech company have declined considerab... Article link

MP Pension to divest assets after excluding 14 countries
From IPE: Denmark's MP Pension has cut Saudia Arabia and 13 other countries from its investment universe on the grounds of systematic human rights violations. As a result, the Danish labour-market fund for academics has blacklisted a total of... Article link

Lyxor names Daniel G. Rizzuto as new head of business development for U.S. business
Opalesque Industry Update - Lyxor Asset Management, the global investment manager with approximately $160 billion under management, has appointed Dan Rizzuto as Head of Business Development of its U.S.-based busines... Article link

As bitcoin trading shifts shape, big money stays away
From Reuters: Bitcoin's value has plunged by three-quarters this year, sending the original and biggest cryptocurrency back to levels not seen before its bubble. And price isn't the only aspect of trading that has changed.
The retail investors ... Article link

Gold becomes fourth-quarter standout as demand surges
From WSJ: Gold has regained its shine, as volatile markets and a trade fight between the U.S. and China have boosted demand for the haven metal.
Gold prices are up 4.7% this quarter and at their highest level in five months. By contrast, most o... Article link

Hedge fund moves at short end of U.S. curve show Fed cuts not too far away: McGeever
From Reuters: The Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this week and probably again early next year, but that will be the end of tightening cycle and it won't be long before rate cuts are on the table.
... Article link

European markets will test the mettle of active managers in 2019
From FT: With politics souring, the economic outlook darkening and the European Central Bank nonetheless switching off its long-running bond-buying stimulus programme, investors are braced for a rough ride in European markets in the... Article link

Corporate tax cuts are China's best option for boosting growth
From Nikkei: Chinese policymakers have long been aware of the unbalanced, unsustainable and uneven nature of the country's debt-driven and investment-reliant growth model.
Yet whenever economic growth momentum has slowed over the past... Article link

Neiman Marcus countersues creditor hedge fund
From Bizjournals: Neiman Marcus views the lawsuit filed against it by one of its debtholders alleging a $1 billion fraudulent transfer as an illegal scheme to injure the Dallas-based luxury retailer and &quot;extract improper benefits for itself,&am... Article link

Activist fund makes the case for US foods boosting its earnings
From Bloomberg: Activist fund Sachem Head Capital Management contends US Foods Holding Corp. is undervalued relative to its food-distribution peers and could better its performance through steps such as improving prices and courting hi... Article link

From Securities Lending Times: End-of-year reports this month are expected to reveal that asset managers and banks made $10 billion through securities lending, according to industry commentators. The first half of the year saw global money managers alone generate nearly $6 billion in revenue by loan... Article link

From The Guardian: A poacher has been ordered to watch the Disney classic Bambi as part of his sentence for illegally killing hundreds of deer.
David Berry was ordered by a court in Missouri to watch the film at least once a month during his year-long jail sentence in what conservation agents have ... Article link

Many of the richest people in the country make their fortune in the financial sector. While it is surely the case that many of the high rollers in the financial sector are hard working and intelligent ...

Former Illinois State Board of Investment Chairman Marc Levine, who led a pension fund charge against investing in hedge funds, plans to leave the board in a few weeks, after passing the baton to a ne...

By Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association One hundred and fifteen years ago today two Wrights tried to make it right when it came time to ponder the prospect of flying the friendly skies. On that day in an open field in a place called Kill Devil Hills, the first recorded airplane flight took off and safelyRead More

The Federal Reserve should not hike interest rates at its meeting Wednesday as recent developments in the markets and economy signal caution, Stanley Drunkenmiller said in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.

Luby’s Inc. and a New York hedge fund officially joined battle this past week in a proxy fight over board seats expected early next year. The Houston-based company, parent to the Luby’s cafeteria and ...

Neiman Marcus views the lawsuit filed against it by one of its debtholders alleging a $1 billion fraudulent transfer as an illegal scheme to injure the Dallas-based luxury retailer and “extract improp...

“Tech-tonic Shift: Innovation in Alternative Investments” will be the theme of the 2019 Cayman Alternative Investment Summit (CAIS), https://cais.ky. This will be the sixth year for CAIS and it promises to be the biggest yet at the Kimpton Seafire Resort & Spa on Grand Cayman, owned by Dart Enterprises, the host sponsor for CAIS.

By David Drake Last month, Thailand’s Revenue Department took a bold step to include blockchain technology in its tax management strategy. By integrating the distributed ledger technology (DLT) ingrained in blockchain, the financial arm of the Thai government is hoping to better account for tax payments and refunds, while using machine learning to detect tax fraud. The government […]

Pierre Andurand, one of the oil market’s last remaining hedge fund managers, suffered further losses in November, putting his fund on the cusp of the first annual decline since its inception five year...

By David Drake The recent IMF report that showcased the various other ways blockchain technology can be used has inspired the mobile technology industry which has led to the HTC launching of the Exodus 1 Model smartphone late in October 2018, which comes equipped with its own crypto-safe feature. There is, however, one major drawback – this phone […]

By David Drake Despite aggressive predictions by financial pundits on the expected turnaround of digital coins, the cryptocurrency market hit a major road bump last month when its market capitalization fell by $42 billion. For the first time since inception, this drop landed the already crippling digital market capitalization below the $200 billion mark. At the beginning of […]

(HedgeCo.Net) Bank of New York Mellon will pay more than $54 million to settle charges of improper handling of “pre-released” American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). ADRs – U.S. securities that represent foreign shares of a foreign company – require a corresponding […]

(CNBC) The Federal Reserve should halt its interest rate increases as recent developments in the markets and economy signal caution, hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller said in a commentary for The the Wall Street Journal. To read this article:

Despite talk of the $3 trillion hedge fund sector nearing its death, the industry is merely living through a phase in its evolution from which the fittest will emerge, Mark Gilbert writes. In fact, th...

(Reuters) – Gold prices inched lower on Monday as the dollar held firm below a 19-month peak on safe-haven demand amid concerns of a global economic slowdown, and as investors awaited cues on U.S. interest rate hikes from a Federal […]

(Hedgeweek) Hedge funds continued to decline in December, largely driven by L/S Equity (and to some extent CTAs), according to the latest Weekly Brief from Lyxor’s Cross Asset Research team. To read this article: